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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Pre-IVF, I cut doctor's offices a lot of slack. "You forgot to call me back? No problem, you were probably really busy." "You didn't order x, y, or z for me? That's OK. I'm sure a couple of days behind schedule is perfectly OK."

Now? My patience grows thin. Even when some of the problem is my fault. Let me demonstrate.

With this latest bladder infection, I paged the doctor-on-call after hours, and she was kind enough to call in a prescription for me without waiting for a urine sample. She did call back a few minutes after I spoke with her and said that after discussing it with her superior, they really did need a urine sample to confirm that the antibiotic was going to work on the infection that I had. That seemed fair enough. She said I could come by the next day (May 22nd, a Friday) if that was more convenient.

Indeed it was more convenient. I planned to go in Friday afternoon. However, I was sidelined by the fact that I got very nauseous at work. I won't go into details, but let's just say that I didn't quite make it to the bathroom receptacle and maintenance needed to be called. I needed to go home and shower. It was not pretty. So, the bottom line was that I didn't have a urine specimen taken. I thought that the antibiotic would probably do the trick, so no harm, no foul.

Yeah....By Tuesday, May 26th, when I had taken more than half of the antibiotics and I still felt crappy (and via an over the counter UTI testing kit still had loads of white blood cells in my urine), I thought I should call the doctor's office again. The nurse insisted that I come in for a urine sample. Yes, I thought, fair enough. My bad. If I have to suffer with this thing longer because I didn't follow the rules, then I got what was coming to me.

So off I went, pawning a duty at work onto a generous co-worker, and took the bus across town to give them my pee. I returned to work confident in the knowledge that I had done my part, albeit late. And, according to the nurse, I should hear back from the office the next day regarding my results.

So the next day came and went. I had a poster session that took up most of my day, so I didn't have a chance to call the office. Thursday came and went as well. So on Friday, I called and asked if there was any news on my urinalysis. I had been starting to feel better by that time, but I wanted to be sure that this wasn't a temporary fix, only to have any residual bacteria in my bladder start to take over again. I didn't get a hold of a nurse right away, so I opted for leaving a message. The office called me back 30 minutes before they closed to inform me that there was a problem with my sample and that the microbiology lab needed another one. I should go to the triage unit, since it would be after hours.

Excuse me?

Now, the rational side of my brain says, mistakes happen. Perhaps I didn't give them enough pee or something and so I need to give them more. The I'm-so-sick-of-all-this-BS part of my brain was all, "hell no! You waited until I called you before you told me that I needed to give another sample. Just like you waited until I came into the office for an appointment before you could finally dig up the results on the amniocentesis on both the babies, or give me the results of my glucose tolerance test! Or that I saw the nurse write down the wrong weight on my chart." And then, because I was all ratcheted up by this time, I immediately started pulling my IVF doctors' "failings" into my mind. "Oh, just like the IVF doc to failed to mention that he deliberately left one of the fibroids in after the surgery. Thus prompting the transfer doctor (during the only IVF cycle to go to retrieval with my own eggs) to accuse me of not giving her all the facts that I had a fibroid near my ovaries, which would make retrieval difficult. Yes, let's bring THAT up when I'm nervous, in stirrups and naked from the waist down. Or when I couldn't get a hold of the doctor for multiple weeks who mentioned I shouldn't carry twins after we found out we were pregnant with twins." Yes, my sanity and my patience. Gone. Gone. Gone.

I then started to work myself up into a bigger snit. My OB's office was all snarky about the urgent care medical facility that I went to when I had my last bladder infection. They told me that for anything related to my health care while I was pregnant I should see them, because the urgent care center I went to was (in so many words) incompetent. They made this assessment based on at least two facts: the urgent care center didn't send my urine results off for culture so when I came back and pulled my let's-vomit-in-the-urgent-care-center trick, they immediately sent me to the hospital where my OB's office is located because the urgent care facility didn't have the resources to get my blood tested that same day. The OB triage units' doctors were both snarky to the urgent care facility (I overheard them on the phone) and kind of snarky to me about it, acting like their practice was so far superior.

What made me laugh after I was released from the hospital that long and fateful day, is that they gave me the SAME D@MN antibiotic that the urgent care facility had given me, just prescribed for one day longer. They KNEW what the urgent care facility had prescribed for me, because I told them no less than 3 times and even brought the empty pill bottle with me and showed to everyone who asked. Pardon me, but yes, that does seem like sound reasoning. And did they send my culture out? I will never know, because they never called me back to tell me.

So when the OB's office said I needed to drive downtown, through traffic on a Friday night and go to their triage unit to give them another urine sample, I walked my butt right across the road to the urgent care center. I told them what happened and asked for them to check my urine; which they did. The answer? Trace white blood cells in my urine. I need to call Sunday or Monday to see if they could culture any bacteria out of it.

Why I felt like I was "sticking it to the man" I'm not sure. But somehow it felt good.....

Yes, I know, I am losing my mind...

Darn it, why does it always seem like we are the only ones who are taking care of us in the health system. Rationally I know this is not true, but I think of all the people who don't know that they need to be an advocate for their own health and they just slip through the cracks. It makes me very happy to know that my Grandparents still have eachother to act as advocates for eachother and that my hubby's Grandmother has her two sons and a daughter-in-law to make sure all the calls that are needed are made....

Thursday, May 28, 2009

So last Monday I went to the OB. I just had an ultrasound and the estimated fetal weights of the boys were about 3.5 pounds each--in the low to mid 90s in terms of percentiles. BIG babies! I got the results of my glucose tolerance test (all fine), my blood pressure (a respectable 118/70) and my protein in the urine test (all fine). So the doctor announces to me, "Wow. You aren't having any of the problems we look for in women carrying twins. You were made to carry twins."

I almost fell off of the exam table. Only 4 months ago 2 of the 4 doctors I spoke with, including one in my OB's practice, was suggesting a fetal reduction.

Not that any of us could have predicted the future. But wow.

I can only hope that things keep going well, although my stress is decreasing with regard as to whether the babies will survive to "what the heck do I know about raising children."

Also, my perception of pregnancy is changing. I am shifting from "oh, thank you, thank you I am still pregnant" to "OK, how many weeks until the C-section?"

I have been battling a recurrent bladder infection. Unfortunately, I don't have all the classical symptoms of a bladder infection (i.e. that burning sensation). My typical bladder infection involves nausea, frequent urges to pee, generally feeling poorly and being really, really worn out. Not too unlike being pregnant. So I'm not sure how long I've actually had this bladder infection. I am thinking for at least 2 or so weeks. Not that delivering the babies will prevent me from getting a bladder infection, but I think that maybe I will recognize it sooner. Kindly, a call to the OB's office led to a prescription for an antibiotic without having to go in that night for a urine sample. I did have to go in later though, as they just MUST have my pee.

In other symptoms (complaints), I am having trouble sleeping, although I am so exhausted. I also have alarming heartburn. Heartburn to the point that the acidic taste can actually make me throw up. Thank goodness that Zan.tac was invented. Otherwise, I would have to just eat chalk all day or something similar.

Well, that's all the complaining that I have on tap for today. I have some other things that I will hopefully get around to sharing with ya'll when I next post. Nothing too spectacular; just what's happening in my little world.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Well, it's official. I'm starting to become more optomistic about the pregnancy. See--it only took about 28 weeks! I still don't want to tempt the fates and get too cocky. But, perhaps I will bait the fates a little. As I think I mentioned before, I had an ultrasound done on the 28th or so of April. Just before the 27 week mark. I tried to figure out how I could link the pictures to somewhere else, in case you wanted to skip the pictures. But it turns out that I'm just not that smart, so if you are ready for them, scroll down at your own risk........................Bot front view (my DH thinks he looks like the Joker...)

Bot's foot!

Bit's profile; the u/s tech said it looked like he was sticking his tongue out!

Bot's face view

Of course I'm biased, but I think they look rather cute. Although, I didn't think about how cute they were last night when my husband tried to kiss me goodnight and I had abruptly excuse myself to run to the bathroom to relieve myself of my after dinner snack. And my face certainly doesn't look cute today, as the expulsion of my food seemed to prompt a number of blood vessels in my face to explode. Yes, I have had raspberries and spider veins on my face today. Luckily, I have freckles (what nearly 36 year old woman STILL has freckles???) and they can hide a lot of sins. I never thought I would be grateful for freckles.....

Monday, May 4, 2009

Actually, we got back right at the end of April, but I have been too tired/lazy to post.

The baby shower was really nice; I didn't freak out or qualify everything I said with "if these babies make it." Which, you know, would be kind of a bummer to everyone around me.

We purposely didn't register for any blue things on some advice I got from a co-worker. He said that when people found out he was having a girl, EVERYONE bought him pink things unless they specifically got it off he and his wife's baby registry. DH and I? Blue out the wazoo. And two of everything clothing-wise.

I had a good time, got to see some of my high school friends and some aunts that I haven't seen in a few years.

The rest of the trip, it seemed like DH and I were running around trying to see everyone. Oh, and it was his Dad's birthday and our 11 year (wow) anniversary.

I got reacquainted with sweet tea (ahhh, I LOVE sweet tea). But found out that I couldn't drink it; it either didn't agree with me, or I drank it too fast and then lost my dinner/lunch/whatever. I'm sure that was for the best anyway, as caffeine is supposed to be at a minimum. I just got DH to order some and I would take a few sips from his glass.

In other news, I had an u/s last Wednesday and the boys seem to be doing well. Both are in the 95% for weight: aprox 2.5 pounds each! [which reminds me, if you don't follow Mermaid's blog, go over there and give her some bloggy love. Her twins were born just under 28 weeks due to a failure to thrive. They seem to be holding their own, but I cannot even imagine what a stressful experience this must be for her and her DH.]

News like this makes me even more grateful for how well this pregnancy seems to be going.

I have been having a lot of practice contractions. In fact, I am at home from work today because I just wanted to monitor how things were going. I have to call the Dr's office if I get more than 4 contractions an hour. Last night before I went to bed I was up to 3 an hour. I drank a HUGE glass of water and went to bed. And then proceeded to get up every hour to pee. When I got up this morning, I was having contractions again, so I decided to monitor and see if they got more frequent. They seem to have settled down now. I think I only had one or two in the past few hours. I think I miss most of them because they are really so mild. The ones last night were nothing to be trifled with. They made me rather nauseous.

So, I'm hoping for the best and trying to take it easy today. I think all will be OK, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have to take off time from work earlier than I want to in order to keep contractions at bay. That wouldn't be so bad if we won the lottery....